Evil Machinations

27 Surefire Ways to Get Kicked Out o...

Posted on May 21 2010 | 5 Comments

Awhile back I did a post on 21 Surefire Ways to Loose Players. With this being Player Month here at Evil Machinations, I thought it time to do a post for the players. Even the most die-hard GMs will change sides of the table,... Read More »

What’s My Motivation?

Posted on May 14 2010 | No Comments

Your GM picked out the adventure, did all of the background work, fleshed out the NPCs, balanced treasure and other rewards. Now it’s finally time to run the adventure, it’s up to the GM to find a way to motivate... Read More »

Livin’ the Good Life: More Ran...

Posted on Apr 09 2010 | No Comments

Image via Wikipedia Stumped for a background for your newest character? Why not try some randomly generated ones? Last week, we covered the steps for generating a random background event and the tables for bad things... Read More »

Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fort...

Posted on Apr 02 2010 | No Comments

Sometimes a good background is hard to find. Usually I have no trouble coming up with a full-fledged past for my characters, complete with NPCs, subtle plot hooks, and flaws ready-made for the GM to exploit. Usually, I hand... Read More »

Change Your Hat, Change Your Charact...

Posted on Mar 19 2010 | No Comments

I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality. Why just be yourself? –Margaret Atwood I love props. I’m constantly making props for my games, from fake newspaper articles... Read More »

Missing You: When the GM Can’t...

Posted on Sep 10 2009 | 1 Comment

Players aren’t the only ones who miss the occasional game session. Every once in a while the GM gets called into work at the last moment, or his wife (or the GM herself!) goes into labor early… there are numerous... Read More »

Fred’s Missing Again?

Posted on Jul 10 2009 | No Comments

Every player has days they can’t make a game. Sometimes, a great conjunction of events happens and a player has to miss a session at the very last minute. It happens to all of us. These aren’t the players I’m referring to. It can be one of the most frustrating things about a running a game: having players who are chronic no-shows. My ex-husband... Read More »

What Your Players Don’t Need t...

Posted on Jul 03 2009 | No Comments

I’m taking a break from Meadowbrook for a few days; I don’t want this blog to become “all Meadowbrook all the time”. I’m considering starting another blog devoted to world-building that would chronicle my development of Meadowbrook and it’s surrounding world; if this is something that would interest you, please leave me a comment.... Read More »

Character Backgrounds

Posted on May 04 2009 | No Comments

There’s a continuum about character backgrounds. I use detailed character backgrounds in my games; in fact, I warn players that I reserve the right to fill in any character history they don’t. Other GMs don’t bother with backgrounds at all — a sentence or two at the top of the character sheet. It really depends on the individual GM’s... Read More »

Player Contributions

Posted on Apr 27 2009 | 2 Comments

Said while making snacks for the group … Dave [player]: Hey, can I have experience points for baking cookies? GM: Sure, Dave can have 200 experience points; Billee [his character] can’t. [12 Aug 2009 Note: There's an updated version of this post at Player contributions, Take Two.] I first ran across the idea of player/character contributions when... Read More »